1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hydrostatic transaxle whose housing incorporates a hydrostatic transmission (hereinafter referred to as “HST”) including mutually fluidly connected hydraulic pump and motor, a horizontal axle, and a deceleration gear train drivingly connecting the hydraulic motor to the axle.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,385,971, there is a well-known pair of hydrostatic transaxles for driving respective left and right axles, wherein a housing of each of the transaxles incorporates an HST including mutually fluidly connected hydraulic pump and motor, each of left and right axles, and a deceleration gear train drivingly connecting the hydraulic motor to the corresponding axle.
The reference discloses an embodiment in which the hydraulic motor includes a vertical motor shaft drivingly connected to the axle through mutually meshing gears. More specifically, the hydraulic motor is vertically mounted on a top surface of a flat plate-shaped center section, the motor shaft is extended downward from the center section, and a bevel gear fixed on the downwardly extended portion of the motor shaft meshes with another bevel gear constituting the deceleration gear train. This arrangement of the vertical motor shaft is advantageous for horizontally (e.g., laterally) minimizing the hydrostatic transaxle.
However, the hydrostatic transaxle including the vertical motor shaft disclosed in the reference requires a large space below the center section for the bevel gears, such as to vertically expand the transaxle.